November 2006/2

Stephen Way has resigned from HCC Insurance Holdings, the company he founded in 1974, following a company investigation over its stock-option granting practices.

RK Harrison Insurance Brokers Ltd, the independent London market brokers, will appoint the former Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group executive Dominic Collins to replace its retiring executive chairman, Richard Corfield.

Oxygen Holdings plc, the London market intermediary backed by high profile figures such as ICAP founder Michael Spencer and former Marsh president Bob Clements, has continued the expansion of its broking operation with the acquisition of the business of S

Bermudian (re)insurer Max Re Capital Ltd today (14 November) announced that acting chairman and CEO W Marston Becker has been permanently appointed to the position.

German reinsurer Hannover Re reported a “gratifying” third quarter result in which the group posted net income of EUR123.5mn.

Eliot Spitzer, whose investigations into the insurance industry continue to reverberate and precipitated Hank Greenberg’s departure from American International Group, has been voted Governor of New York state by a landslide.

Bermudian (re)insurer Allied World Assurance Co (AWAC) bounced back from 2005’s third quarter loss of $283.4mn with a strong $114mn contribution.

Aspen Insurance Holdings – the Bermudian domiciled (re)insurer which lost three of its four underwriting heads this summer – revealed plans to leverage its balance sheet last week with a $200mn hybrid offering and details of a share buy-back.

OneBeacon Insurance Group Ltd debuted on the New York Stock Exchange last Thursday (9 November) at $26 a share. The initial public offering saw the US insurer raise around $600mn, with the majority of proceeds from the float flowing into Bermudian parent

Troubled Bermudian reinsurer PXRE reported a small third quarter net profit last week (8 November) as it said it continues to look for alternatives to what looks to be an increasingly inevitable slide into run-off.

US broker USI Holdings reported a 3.5 percent increase in third quarter revenues to $131.7mn as it announced income from continuing operations of $8.5mn last week (9 November).

Scottish Re, the beleaguered Bermudian life reinsurer, lost almost half its value as its shares crashed last week.